Rubell's Antiques

My Waterlow & sons wooden box - Railwayana

Rubell — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:16:52 +0000

Antique wooden box with alloy tipe for fitting into an card ticket dating press.

Labelled “Waterlow & Sons” in brass on lid.

Railwayana

There are many diverse areas of interest to collectors. This includes lamps, hand lamps, railway posters, carriage prints, books, jigsaw puzzles, signalling items, cast iron signs, silver plate, china, glassware, clocks and tickets.As the Railways developed so was the need for greater safety, no more so than in the area of controlling the running of the trains. A wide range of signalling apparatus were introduced by the Railway Companies to improve this: such items include signals, signal lamps, block instruments, block bells, telegraph instruments, interlocking frames, single line staff, keys, tokens, tablets and telephones. All of these areas have become popular in recent years. A popular area relates to trespass notices, also highly desirable are bridge restriction notices, notices dealing with specific issues, or locations, boundary posts etc. The most desirable signs are those with the name of a Railway Company or Companies in the title, or body of the text.

Waterlow & sons Limited

In 1810 James Waterlow opened offices at 14 and 25 Birchin Lane and later took into partnership his sons Alfred, Walter, Sydney and Albert. James died in 1876 and a year later the brothers split the firm. Alfred with his sons Alfred Jnr, Herbert and Walter, formed Waterlow Brothers & Layton with the family friend Alfred Thomas Layton. They retained the legal and general printing business at the Birchin Lane offices. Sir Sydney Waterlow founded Waterlow & Sons with his sons Philip, George and Charles. They took the railway, foreign currency and stamp printing to their offices at London Wall and Finsbury Market in London.

“Philip”
Sir Philip H. Waterlow,
(Business and Empire Builders)

Original Chromolithograph by “SPY”:, for“Vanity Fair” May 31,1879

My seven antiques porcelain counter weights

Rubell — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:49:41 +0000

Counter weight for electric light

Pear-shaped in porcelain, c.1900-1925

The adjustable pulley pendant should be filled with lead pellets

or similar to balance the weight of the light fitting.

Another examples

Counter balance hanging lights fixtures

My french plate with the Cross of Lorraine

Rubell — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:50:04 +0000

Another examples of french plates

The Cross of Lorraine

Drawings of insignia - Circular 13 November 1943.

Admiral Thierry d’Argenlieu was responsible for the adoption of the cross by Free France in 1940. He wrote to de Gaulle that the Free French needed their own cross to stand against the Nazi swastika. In his general order of 3 July 1940, the day after his appointment as commander of the Free French naval and air forces, Vice-Admiral Emile Muselier (1882-1965), created an emblem for the French forces rallied to de Gaulle in the form of a bowsprit flag (a blue square with a red cross of Lorraine in the centre, in opposition to the swastika) for the naval vessels and, for the Free French aircraft, a roundel featuring the Lorraine cross.

Emile Henry Muselier

Emile Henry Muselier (Marseilles, 17 April 1882 - Toulon, 2 September 1965) was a French admiral who led the Free French Naval Forces (Forces navales françaises libres, or FNFL) during World War II. He was responsible for the idea of distinguishing his fleet from that of Vichy France by adopting the Cross of Lorraine, which later became the emblem of all of the Free French. After entering the French Naval Academy (École Navale) in 1899, he embarked on a brilliant and eventful military career. He ran unsuccessfully in the legislative elections of 1946 as vice-president of the Rally of Republican Lefts (Rassemblement des gauches républicaines), and then entered private life as a consulting engineer before his retirement in 1960. He is buried in the cemetery of St. Pierre, at Marseilles.

Flag of Admiral Muselier

The flag was vertically hoisted in his office in London and could also be used on board. Its most probable size was 0.9 m x 0.9 m. The flag has a dark blue field with a red cross of Lorraine and the worlds HONNEUR and PATRIE, in gold letters, flanking the cross.

My WMF Vienna Secessionist style mustard-pot

Rubell — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:08:42 +0000

Polished pewter WMF mustard-pot.

Vienna Secessionist style.

Germany - 1906

WMF mark

The Austrian Artistic Movement

Vienna Secession

In 1897 a group of Artists, such as Otto Wagner and his gifted students, Joseph Hoffmann and Joseph Olbrich, with Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and others aspired to the renaissance of the arts and crafts and to bring more abstract and purer forms to the designs of buildings and furniture, glass and metalwork, following the concept of total work of art and to do so they tried to bring together Symbolists, Naturalists, Modernists and Stylists.
They gave birth to another form of modernism in the visual arts and they named their own new movement: Secession (Wiener Secession). As the name indicates, this movement represented a protest, of the younger generation against the traditional art of their forebears, a “separation” from the past towards the future.

Another examples for the Vienna Secessionist Style

My chinese black lacquer box inlaid with semi-precious stones

Rubell — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:04:30 +0000

Is a large chinese black lacquer box with a scene of figure in garden in multi-colored jade, soap-stone, ivory, mother of pearl, red-aventurine and agate. Early to mid 19th century.

Before restoration

During the latter part of the nineteenth and earlier part of this century ignorance contributed to the neglect of many of these fine boxes. Many must have perished or damaged beyond recognition.

Very few have survived in very good condition. A fragment of good lacquer represents hours of precious work.

Restoration must not be attempted as lacquer is very toxic and by the nature of the work not really possible or cost effective. Consolidation is the best way of avoiding further erosion.

Another examples

My Mägdesprunger cast iron table–19th (in restoration)

Rubell — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:34:44 +0000

Germany 19th century Mägdesprunger cast iron table.

Mark “ME” with obelisk and “MUSTERSCHUTZ”

Marke, oval, Obelisk ME, Musterschutz mit Musternummer

auf dem Relief Henkersteg Nürnberg

Höhe der Marke 27 mm

Another examples for OBELISK tables

Mägdesprunger table design

Tables catalogue - 1908

Cherubs design, drawing

Fig reduced, Orig. carton level 380 x 440 mm

The piece is included in the Price-Courant 1893, LV 35, page 74
Pattern Book Museum Allstedt

It presents exhibits from the Horn-Mägdesprung collection of Allstedt castle, including early art cats following the tradition of the Royal Prussian Foundries, copies of items from past art epoches, and pieces by well-known artists like Antonio Canova, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Ernst Ritschel, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Christian Friedrich Tieck et al., among them the ironworks sculptors Johann Heinrich Kureck 1821-1889), Wilhelm Elster 1840-1912) and Wilhelm Elster junior 1869-1916).

My antique wall mount ashtray cigars

Rubell — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:50:45 +0000

This is a rare 1900 bronze wall mount ashtray for cigars.

Marked: BERESFORD B.A.P

The Beresford Cigar

Book-shaped wood box (10)
Factory 21 IRD 32 Series of 1897
Stirton & Dyer, London.

Charles, Lord Beresford (1846 – 1919) rose through the ranks of the navy to become First Lord of the Admiralty. He also served as a Conservative MP. He has no apparent connection with Canada. He wrote to The Times defending the commander and crew of the Titanic after the disaster, and is said to be the author of a famous witticism: on being invited on short notice to dine with the Prince of Wales, he sent a telegram, “Very sorry can’t come. Lie follows by post.”

Austen Chamberlain

Son of Joseph his more famous father. Born 1863. Educated Rugby and Trinity Cambridge. A debonair figure. Wearing a monocle and an orchid buttonhole. Smoking a cigar.

My Myotts Staffordshire “Royal Crown” salad plate Seville

Rubell — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:21:58 +0000

This particular piece is a rimmed salad plate. It has an ivory background with fruit urns, a yellow band and blue scrolls. Some fruit in the urns is raised in a moriage style, done with enamel as opposed to clay, for added beauty.

Marked on bottom of plate with a crown over the oval which holds the words “Royal Crown, Myott’s” and with Staffordshire England” below it.

Another example of Myotts porcelain

My small nickel plated electric desk fan

Rubell — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 22:22:01 +0000

This is a very early 20^th electric fan made in germany.

Original nickel plated and dark wood body.

IXA (7″ german fan):

Did you know…Schuyler Skaats Wheeler (May 17, 1860 – April 20, 1923) was an American engineer who invented the two-blade electric fan in 1882 at age 22.

Did you know…though they were built very well internally, they were far from finger safe, as a lot of them had cage openings so big that one could put an entire hand or arm through it. Many children had hands and fingers severely injured by those fans.

1896 crocker wheeler fan

Timeline

1734 Frenchman John Theophilus Desagulier invents the paddle fan to ventilate mines

1882 Schuyler Skaats Wheeler invents the electric fan

1889 Philip H. Diehl patents the ceiling fan

1894 German professor Hermann Rietchel publishes Guide to Calculating and Design of Ventilation and Heating Installations

1896 the fan with more than two blades are produced

My Maha Kola mask - Sri Lanka 19th

Rubell — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:38:44 +0000

Sri Lanka has a rich culture of theatre called Kolam and exorcism called Thovil which make use of actors, exorcists, masks, music and dance. The Sanni Yakuma is the best known exorcism ritual, in which numerous Sanni (disease) demons are portrayed by exorcists wearing elaborate masks. Occasionally the full complement of 18 possible disease demons is represented in the Daha Ata Sanniya (18 diseases) ritual, but usually a smaller number are used according to which demons are thought to be causing a person’s affliction. The exorcism ends with the appearance of an exorcist wearing the mask of the chief demon called Maha Kola (the terrific or all encompassing one), which usually incorporates miniature representations of the other 18 demons.

Maha Kola Mask, Sri Lanka